


Return with a Side of Much-Needed Comfort

by TheoFromTV



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Romance, Blood and Injury, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mercury and Neo were in a relationship during V3, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Doubt, Self-Harm, Takes place after V5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 08:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15432948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheoFromTV/pseuds/TheoFromTV





	Return with a Side of Much-Needed Comfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duncles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duncles/gifts).



Mercury couldn’t sleep. 

 

Rain was pattering atop the solid steel roof, echoing throughout the halls and warning the residents of the storm that was rapidly strengthening outside, keeping the night time awake. These residents in question, the three being assassin Mercury Black, his partner-in-crime Emerald Sustrai, and acquaintance Hazel Reinhart, were not asleep, but definitely not because of the rain; the three were kept with their eyes wide open with the thoughts that invaded their own minds. 

 

Three days had passed since the battle that had occurred in Haven Academy, and the faction had suffered quite serious losses on their front, those being the failure in battle, the disappearance of Raven Branwen and the deaths of both Vernal and Lionheart, who, though not as important as many others, were vital assets to their cause. They were gone forever. 

 

Nothing could compare to the loss of Cinder Fall. 

 

Cinder Fall, leader of the main Vale faction of villains, the Fall Maiden, and one of Queen Salem’s best, was just... _ gone. _ This was hard for the faction, yes, but now?   
  
Emerald and Mercury were the only two original faction members remaining, as far as they were concerned. To think losing  _ Roman Torchwick _ was bad. 

 

The two henchmen had taken the loss in complete opposite ways, as was to be expected. 

 

Mercury, on one hand, felt numb. He’d...He didn’t fully trust Cinder, but he was indebted to her, mainly due to the fact that she gave him a life outside of his ruined one. A job. 

 

Emerald, on the other hand, had been faring much,  _ much  _ worse. She had been slightly dependent on their leader; Cinder had flat-out saved her life, offered her a better one. Emerald, in her own words to Ruby Rose, had stated that she owed  _ everything _ to Cinder, despite everything, despite the abuse she had gotten, despite all of the questioning Emerald had done. And her life was falling apart. Since she had awoken, she had only left her room for food...nothing else. 

 

Back to present day. 

 

Mercury used this time to mull over everything. He began to mimic one of the oh-so-brave huntsmen that he’s met before. “We have all these losses, but at least we still have  _ eachother _ ~” Mercury muttered under his breath in a mocking tone. That’s what a  _ hero _ would say. He’s not a “hero”. He’s never been. 

 

Sighing, the assassin sat up in his bed. They’d been lucky to find a handful of spare bedrooms inside the abandoned warehouse. On top of this, there was a surplus of food and other various supplies that they’d need, implying that whoever was the owner of the facility had not left that long ago. This left Mercury fairly paranoid, but he made an effort to shake the feeling off. They could take them...couldn’t they? Hazel had been numb since the fight, having expended all of his energy in his lust for vengeance against Ozpin. Emerald had requested to be left alone. And Mercury felt sore and defeated. 

 

Needless to say, none of the villains were in the best place at the moment. 

 

Mercury was pulled from his thoughts as sounds echoed from the outside of the makeshift hideaway.  _ What the hell? _ Mercury cursed under his breath, fearing the worst. Either team RWBY and the rest of that ragtag team of huntsmen had tracked them down, or the Mistral Police, or—Mercury felt himself shiver as the thought crossed his mind—Salem. A death wish, dying for their crippling failure. Shoving himself to his feet, he made his way to the entrance of his corridors, slowly opening the door and looking out. Almost immediately did he notice that both of his cohorts had been doing the same thing, the three of them sharing confused and fearful glances. Giving a hoarse sigh, the assassin stepped out. 

 

“ _ Alright _ ,” he said tiredly with a sharp edge to his voice, “I’ll go check it out. Stay on guard, weapons ready. You know the deal.” Hazel and Emerald hesitated, but it soon became clear that neither were going to step up and argue with him. They nodded, slinking back into their rooms, the sound of doors clicking echoing throughout the hall. Mercury’s brow furrowed, but he turned and made his way towards the front entrance. 

 

The noises were still occurring outside, albeit being uncomfortably...weaker than what had first began just minutes earlier. Must be a  _ trick _ , Mercury’s conscience hissed.  _ Maybe, _ the assassin mentally replied,  _ But there’s no harm in checking, hm? _ Gaining no response, Mercury flicked on his flashlight, stepping outside as he slid the doors open. What took him by surprise was the silence and emptiness that he was met with. Where’d it go? Mercury backed further into the open gloom of the surrounding forest. Sighing with defeat, Mercury turned back towards the warehouse. Must’ve been dead e—

 

The sound of rustling in the bushes behind him alerted him, pulling him out of his exhausted trance. 

 

**_Bingo!_ **

 

A smirk spread across Mercury’s face as he crept over to the thicket. 

 

“Haah... _ Haah… _ ”

 

Were those hisses of  pain ? Mercury hastily slowed his steps, growing confused and—if he were being honest with himself—quite wary. But it was now or never. With a rush of adrenaline, the assassin sprang forwards, parting the bushes in order to (possibly) reveal the identity of what—or  _ who _ —had been making such noises and disrupting them. Mercury looked down at the source. 

 

Mercury’s breath caught in his throat once his eyes fell on the mystery person. 

 

What the hell? What the  _ HELL _ ? 

 

Before him lay the shivering, bedraggled, and hunched-over figure of a girl he’d thought to be dead all this time. 

 

Roman Torchwick’s partner and sole confidant, Neopolitan. 

 

And…

 

Mercury shook his head furiously in order to dispel the thoughts.  _ No _ . He couldn’t dwell on that right now. He knelt in front of the trembling girl. There wasn’t any time to look over her out here; because  _ damn _ , she’d taken quite a beating. But from what? 

 

“Hey, Cherry,” Mercury whispered quietly, trying to use one of his  many nicknames for Neo in a hurried attempt to calm her down. “It’s just me. Mercury. The dum-dum, remember?” 

 

Neo flinched, narrowing her eyes as she tried to discern his face. She lifted her hands, covered in scratches and bruises and some thick, black goop that Mercury guessed could only have come from Grimm, and began to sign < _ M-E-R-C-U-R-Y _ > letter by letter. Mercury silently thanked himself for learning the gestures, and nodded. 

 

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me. Come on.” Leaning forwards, he scooped Neo up in his arms, noting how light she’d become. Letting out a hoarse sigh, he made his way back into the warehouse, slamming the door shut with his left foot. As his footsteps echoed throughout the hall, Hazel—with Emerald stumbling close behind—left their rooms and rushed over to their comrade.

 

Emerald spoke first as she approached. “Did you find the source of the—” Her voice died as she recognized the person in his arms. “... _ Oh. _ ” 

 

Mercury nodded to her, a silent understanding, as Emerald gently squeezed Neo’s hand before departing back to her own room. He then turned to Hazel. “Yo, big guy,” he said gruffly, “Mind finding me a first-aid kit? Thanks.” Not waiting for a response, Mercury turned, making a beeline for his own bedroom. Lifting a foot upon arrival, he held Neo close as he reared back, kicking the wooden door open and hurrying inside, waiting for the sound of the clicking lock before he set Neo on his bed. As if on cue, there was a rough knock at the door. Mercury looked at Neo, holding up a finger to signify “one second”, then proceeded to make his way over to the door, opening it slowly. 

 

Once seeing Mercury’s face, Hazel held up the dusty first-aid kit. Mercury muttered a thanks, taking it from the muscled man. Hazel sighed. “Black. Can you...explain to me who this gi—no, how you and Miss Sustrai happen to know her?”

 

Nervously, Mercury scratched the back of his neck as he combed his mind for some type of response to give. “She, uh, was part of Cinder’s faction. Back in Vale.” Hazel tipped his head, an eyebrow raised, but made a noise of understanding, turning and walking away. Once he was gone, Mercury ran his fingers through his spiky gray hair as he breathed a sigh of relief, closing the door. He gave a weak smile to Neo, setting down the box. It was at this point that the assassin decided to fully look her over. 

 

He’d be lying if he said he weren’t surprised. 

 

Mercury had always remembered Neo as being stoic, silent, untouchable,  _ unstoppable _ . It seems that things have changed, though. His eyes travelled up and down her body. First, Neo’s hair was  _ definitely _ shorter, and it didn’t look like a haircut. It was choppy, unkempt, and much duller. 

 

_ Like someone  _ pulled  _ it out _ , Mercury realized with a shiver. Time to focus on something else. 

 

Everything else seemed much more...melodramatic. There were tons of bruises and cuts all over her body, at least skin that was visible to him. The bruises that resembled hands on her neck made the assassin nauseous. She wore a ratty brown trench coat that was far too big for her, likely to hide whatever was behind it. 

 

The final detail that Mercury took into account was what was on Neo’s head. 

 

_ Torchwick’s hat. _

 

A sickening feeling grew in Mercury’s stomach. All Mercury had known about their respective roles during the Beacon takeover was that Neo would use the time during Cinder’s inevitable speech to get Roman. He didn’t know what had become of the two afterwards, though. 

 

_ Mercury and Emerald stood on the roof, still recording and keeping watch after Cinder had left, claiming that she had some business she had almost forgotten to attend to.  _

 

_ Mercury was focusing on the elephant Grimm coming from the east when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Emerald.  _

 

_ “Look,” she whispered, pointing at something in the sky.  _

 

_ Mercury turned just in time for his scroll to capture a fight going down in the distance on an Atlesian airship. He couldn’t see what was going on from his distance, but someone fell off, and just minutes later the aircraft exploded into flames and lurched, heading downwards a crash.  _

 

_ Ruby Rose could be seen soaring down and landing somewhere in the city.  _

 

Mercury knew who the person who fell was now. 

 

It was Neo. 

 

Mercury frowned, looking at the spy in front of him. He knelt in front of her. “Hey, Cherry,” he whispered, careful to keep his voice low. “I need to bandage you up, blink once for ‘yes’, blink twice for ‘no’. I need to know if I am allowed to take off your jacket.” 

 

Neo flinched, and her eyes glazed over as if she were conflicted, lost in thought. Then she blinked. 

 

Once. 

 

Mercury gave her a tiny smile, lifting his hands and unbuttoning the coat, giving her a nod to signal her moving her arms to help shrug the coat off. He put it to the side, looking her over. Neo was wearing a short-sleeved white dress-shirt, nothing else. Poor her. 

 

He was right; all injuries were on the face or the torso and arms. Just  _ looking  _ at all of the ones that littered her body made him sick to his stomach. And he’s a fucking  _ assassin _ . There were bruises and cuts; that’s to be expected. Mercury recognized a handful of large, jagged bite marks—distantly in his mind, he recalled Roman Torchwick getting led in by Hei “Junior” Xiong one night, a huge bite from his neck to his lower torso.  _ Grimm bites.  _ Shaking his head, Mercury kept going. There were hand-shaped bruises around the neck, the torso, the arms. 

 

Mercury  _ really _ didn’t feel like vomiting right now, or even asking Neo who did this. 

 

He didn’t want to know. 

 

The final injuries were scars on the wrists. 

 

Simple. 

 

Opening the box, he pulled out the alcohol and cotton swabs. The only wounds he needed to disinfect were the Grimm ones, which were still fresh. He yawned, rolling up his sleeves as he began to bandage Neo. He sighed. “You’re in the clear. Nothing’s broken.” 

 

Neo didn’t say a word—she never does—or react until she was sat down on Mercury’s bed, with the man sitting down in front of her, one leg crossed. He took her hands gently. “Cherry. It’s okay. Whoever did this—They won’t hurt you. Not while  **Mercury Alabaster Black** is here!” 

 

That earned the tiniest chuckle. Mercury grinned, before it disappeared, replaced with a worried frown. “Neo. Please, please  _ tell _ me that you aren’t—you aren’t going to fucking—fucking disappear like that again. I missed you. So much.” 

 

“ _ I-I’m s-sorry—“  _ Neo stuttered out, her voice cracked and hoarse. Mercury ruffled her hair, before gently kissing her. 

 

“I’m sorry too, Cherry. Now, you need rest.” 

 


End file.
